The Unexpected Happily Ever After

Chapter 1

"I still cannot believe Dylan FINALLY wised up and asked you to prom it only took him thirteen years to figure out what he had in front of him." Andrea declared with a huge grin on her face.

Andrea and I had been best friends ever since her family moved to Mississippi back in the 9th grade. A prim and very pretty yankee with long, blonde hair who was snatched out of the big city and dumped into a rural town in the deep south of Mississippi due to her father's work. Andrea had looked terrified on that first day, and I had felt bad for her. I had offered her a seat at my lunch table thinking she would decline since it was the nerd table and she was so not one of us, but to my surprise she accepted my offer. We sat together everyday after that. Today she had come with me to pick out my prom dress after Dylan had asked me to go with him. Dylan and I met on the first day of kindergarten when he scrapped his knee falling off the jungle gym. I had always been accident prone, so my mother had packed bandaids into my back pack. I offered him one rather than laughing at him like the other kids, and the rest was history. We were inseparable through elementary and middle school. He was there for me the summer when my dad abandoned my mother and I. We sat up in my tree house every night watching lightening bugs and playing board games and when it all got to be too much he held me while I cried. It wasn't all one sided though. The next year I returned the favor. His mom was diagnosed with cancer. No one else at school knew. He hadn't wanted the looks of sympathy. Dylan had said that the only thing worse than his mom having cancer was the looks of pity that everyone gave him when they found out. I kept his secret. I sat up late at night in the tree house with him offering my silent support. I helped him with homework and studying for tests. When he fell behind because of traveling for his mother's appointments, I wrote his essays and book reports. Thankfully his mother was able to beat cancer. I can't remember when I fell in love with him, but I also can't remember a time when I wasn't in love with him. Things changed the summer after our 8th grade year. Dylan had tried out for football that spring, so he spent most of the summer gone to training or football camps. I had been naive enough to think that we would always be best friends. I had underestimated the social hiarchey that was high school. To his credit Dylan stayed friendly. He would wave at me in the hall and speak whenever we were in the same classes. He still brought me a present every year on my birthday, but our days of being best friends were long gone. He moved on to jocks, cheer leaders, parties, and a seat at the popular table; and I found Andrea. I missed how close Dylan and I had been, but I was eternally grateful to have Andrea in my life.
Needless to say I was pretty shocked when Dylan asked me to go to prom with him. It wasn't a secret that he had wanted to take Holly to prom. Holly was captain of the cheer leading squad and an exact replica of every popular mean girl in every movie. I never understood what he saw in her. I can understand him not liking me, but he could have had someone much better that Holly. Apparently she had decided to go with some guy she had met at a college party. Dylan asked me if I was going and when I said no he had insisted that we go together. I didn't figure he knew how I really felt about him. I was fairly certain that he saw us going to prom together as a just friends thing. That was the logical explanation, but I couldn't quite squash the tiny bead of hope I held that maybe he had finally seen me as more than just his nerdy friend.

"Andrea, we've been over this. It's not like that. He wanted to take Holly, but she's going with someone else so he asked me to go. We're just friends." I explained for the millionth time as I gazed at my reflection in the mirror.

I was wearing a long, black gown with beading around the bust and a slit on the right leg. It was simple, but looked very elegant. I felt pretty in it.

"Quit starting at that mirror and go change. That's the dress. We're buying it. I'm not going to let you stand there dissecting yourself until you hate it. As for Dylan, don't be silly. He asked you because he wants to take you. He could have taken any girl in that school if he wanted, but he chose you. That means something. So, go change and let's pay. I want an iced coffee." Andrea declared before shoving me towards the dressing room.